Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-03-04
PROHIBITION.
A Letter from Mrs. Burnett on the
subject.

EDITOR DEMOCRAT: The editors head
ing to my last letter is very significant
for prohibition finally" it will be. Her
bert Spencer says, "people never g
right until they have tried every possible
way of going wrong" Every method o
dealing with the liquor traffic save pro
hibition has been effectually tried. VIVA
set Of blockheads the people OF Ohio
must be- The Tribune says the Consti
tuition gives US prohibition, and not one
in the State knows it. 1 wonld like tt
ask, why did the Legislature submit tc
the people a constitutional amendment
in favor OF prohibition in 1882, if it is
already granted them? And how could
| it, last winter, pass the Dow law that per-
mits any one who will pay 5000 to sell
And what bright set OF Supreme Judges
Ohio must have since they have pro-
nounced the law constitutional. Strange
constitution that gives prohibition and
| taxation at the same time. Prohibition
does not prohibit" Neither does regula-
| ton regulate. License has been tested
and the people have pronounced it a
| failure. License Justly assumes that the
traffic is wrong and must be regulated.
License is partial prohibition, and the
power that can restrict can prohibit if
the people demand and the public good
requires. God does not regulate crime
man cannot. License is the price a
nation puts upon the ruined homes and
lost souls of its subjects" License helps
to make this systematized murder re-
spectacle. 1t is an unjust monopoly.
If the business is to be carried on for
the good of the people, and it has on right
to invest for any other reason, the poor
man who cannot pay his 5000 in Ohio or
$1,000 in Utah, should have the privilege
of making eight cents on a ten-cent
drink. It.. involves the right to license
gambling houses and other form OF vice.
License throws around the traffic the
sanction of the State. 1t gives the liquor
seller permit from organized society, to
carry on crime against society. Web
ster says a crime is violation OF the
laws of God and man, The licensing of
crime is itself crime. The Supreme
Court has declared that State has the
right to prohibit. The right to prohibit
carries with it the duty to prohibit since
government has no right to prohibit a
beneficial traffic.
The right to prohibit murder or arson
imposes the duty to prohibit, and the
right to prohibit the liquor traffic imposes
the same duty. Legislation cannot be
made matter of expediency. 1t is, or
should be, based wholly upon principles
of right; it should ever give the greatest
good to the greatest number. License is
a compromise measure, and will affect
the traffic just as slavery was affected by
similar legislation, it will simply ward
off the coming contest. What are the
two arguments for license? Prohibition
does not prohibit" "The law will not be
enforced" But prohibition does pro-
hibit as effectually as any one has
right to expect, so long as the whole
machinery of the National Government
and the dominant parties are opposed
to it. The testimony of Judges, Cover
nors and people are all in favor of the
law when they are untrammeled by party
politics Shall we throw away all human
law and the decalogue?
"There's not law of all the ten butts
broken every day;
There is not a law that's make by men but
travels the same way.
Yet without law we could not live-the world
could never stand:
And so the thing for all to do is just to lend
hand,
And help enforce the temperance laws in
every way you can"
But the great argument is the revenue
This revenue is a powerful reason to
many for continuing the crime. The
average voter seems to believe that his
taxes are actually lessened by the exist
ence of saloons. What are the facts?
The Governor of Ohio says: "Ohio re-
ceives 81, 200, 900 from the Dow law, but
the expense to the citizens from poverty
and crime engendered by saloons is
100000. Our National Government
derives a revenue Of $40 ,00O, 900, but the
loss to the people is more than thousand
millions.
Judge Noah Davis, and no man in
America has had larger experience in
the criminal courts, says: ''The saloon
is responsible for eighty per cent of all
crimes"
Gladstone says: "The saloon in
f1icts more harm on man than the
three scourges of war. famine and pesti-
lence combined"
The New York Tribune says: "This
traffic lies at the center of all political
and social mischief, it paralyzes en-
ergies in every direction, it neutralizes
educational agencies, it silences the
voice of religion, it battles penal reform,
it obstructs political reform"
And yet we will license it for money.
More than this, every gallon were taxed
a thousand dollars, it would not COM
pensate for the tears it has caused Talk
not to woman OF dollars and cents when
her home is invaded. "But we can't
prohibit it, says some one. We can.
There is nothing which ought to be done
that a free people cannot do. Strong as
are the powers of evil the elements for
good are still stronger, and America will
yet be redeemed.
G. S. BURNETT.
SALT LAKE Cry, March 4th.